bill@CRYS.WISC.EDU.UUCP (05/06/86)
In article <8605041018.AA06207@ucbvax.berkeley.edu>, wmartin@BRL.ARPA (Will Martin) writes: > Under what circumstances will a called but unanswered telephone continue > to ring after the calling party has hung up? > ... > A phone in an empty office may ring forever; when finally picked up, > there will be silence or some indeterminate noises heard. Hanging it up > and picking up again gets dial tone immediately, so there is no party > left at the calling end. I believe that at least one cause is the increasing popularity of 3-way calling (from your local phone company and on pbxs). If the caller doesn't go on-hook for the 5 seconds or so it takes to disconnect, the ringing continues while the caller makes a second call. I do this myself from time to time. If the called party 'answers', they get the blind end of what the pbx thinks is a 3-way call. The ringing continues until answered, or until the caller goes on-hook for > 5 seconds. By the way, what is the effect on long-distance billing of these ghost calls? I've often wondered what happens if you have 3-way calling, dial a number, and hang up. The called number keeps ringing for at least five seconds, yes? Then if it's picked up, you get charged for the call. Long distance carriers that bill by elapsed time rather than using supervision could have a real windfall here...the calls wouldn't always show as the 1-minute ones Western Union used to bill me for, they would look more like 'real' calls. bill